An error in the prisons system in Samoa saw a man being incarcerated for five years longer than his sentence. Sio Agafili, 45, should have been released from prison in 2015 after serving two jail terms. In November 2008, he was convicted of burglary and theft and sentenced to seven years. A month later he was found guilty of other crimes and got a five-year sentence. The default procedure in Samoa is that a convict with two sentences must serve them together and not consecutively. A judge recently spotted the error when Mr Agafili appeared in court on another charge.
In a newspaper interview, Mr Agafili described his anguish at spending too long in jail. He said: "It's broken me into a million pieces. No one told me when my jail term would end. I lost count of the days....I just know I had to serve my time behind bars." His lawyer Muriel Lui told reporters about the injustice suffered by her client. She said: "He's been imprisoned unlawfully. I've heard of other cases of a similar nature. This is not the first of this type." She added: "His right to liberty has definitely been breached." Ms Lui said she would try to get compensation for her client.